Do I explain to my 7-year-old daughter what a lesbian is? She's been exposed 2 the word on the school bus.

The telephone rang before I could answer her question "What is a lesbian?" Should I bring up the topic again or consider myself "saved by the bell" and wait until she brings it up again? Perhaps wait until she is older? I'm really stuck on this one.

This is a really good question and I would suspect that if she has heard it once she will hear it again. so you are probably better off explaining it to her instead of waiting as she may get some misleading or inappropriate information from asking her peers.

My own child was called a Lesbian by a classmate because she has a really good friend whom she spends all her time with at school. They were only 8 years old but this boy had already decided that their holding hands on the playground meant that they were lesbians. So the whole class ended up getting a talk about stereotyping and name calling and I had to explain to her what the word meant.

Wait until she brings it up again and then tell her the truth about what a lesbian is.

You do not need to go into a lot of detail, but give her the most basic definition you can. Do not lie to her because she'll pick up the information somewhere eventually and may start to lose trust in you if she feels she can't get an honest answer from you.

If she presses for details, just tell her you want to wait until she's older

Aswer her that this is situation where she would have two mothers. She has to know that she can always ask a mother everything. It is a good way for future.

Unfortunatly in this day and age children are being exposed to any and everything at very early ages. I'd say you'd probably want to explain to your daughter what a lesbian is rather than have someone else explain it to her . Only you know how you feel about that topic and which angle you want to take to explain this to your daughter.

It's never too early to understand diversity. Surely you must know some gay couples! Just explain to her that most mommy and daddy combinations are one man one woman; but some people make different combinations.

I think she's in the right age to find out what this is. So, next time she asks you, don't dare and just tell her what you know. Be sure to provide her with real information and avoid lying to her. It'll really let her down if she finds out you tried to mislead her.